Stacey McGill has diabetes. she has to go to New York City for a lot of appointments. Her parents want her to go to a special doctor who they’ve seen on TV. But Stacey wants a second opinion. Meanwhile, the BSC has new competition, The Baby Sitters Agency. The Agency has older sitters who can stay out later, driving away some of the BSC’s clients. The girls have to come up with a clever way to save the BSC.

This story deals with the serious issue of Stacey’s diabetes. Though she was ashamed of it at first, the baby sitters accept her when they find out. They don’t think it’s a big deal, though Stacey was afraid they wouldn’t like her when they found out. Stacey also demonstrates her maturity and independence by taking her health into her own hands when she tells her parents she wants to see a different doctor from the one she picked out.

The babysitters have to be very creative when trying to save their club. They learn that the truth is the best policy, when they have to expose the secrets of the Baby Sitters Agency when a child is in danger.

This graphic novel is another great adaptation of the original Baby Sitters Club.

Belle lives in the French town of Villeneuve with her father. Belle is considered an outsider to the other villagers because she is always reading and inventing things to make her life easier. When her father goes on a trip to the market, she asks him to bring back a rose. But when his horse returns without him, Belle knows he’s in trouble. The horse leads Belle to a castle where her father is being held prisoner by the Beast. Belle tricks her father into trading places with her so she will stay at the castle and her father can return to his home. The Beast lets Belle out of the cell, and gives her a bedroom, where she meets the personified household furniture. Belle soon learns that the Beast is just a misunderstood man who has been cursed to live as a beast.
Beauty and the Beast is my favourite Disney movie. I was so excited about the new movie and these manga adaptations

The pictures of the characters are very true to the new movie. Though the drawings of furniture are exactly like the movie, Belle still has a manga look to her. She has big eyes, but she looks like Emma Watson in the movie.

One thing that bothered me was the position of the dialogue in some frames. Since it’s a manga, it has to be read from right to left, but some frames had the order of the text going from left to right. This was a little confusing and it slowed down my reading.

There is also a sequel to this manga that tells the Beast’s side of the story!

Four years ago, Kacey was in a car accident that killed her parents, her best friend, and her boyfriend. Her and her younger sister, Livie, were sent to live with her aunt and uncle. But when Kacey turned 19, she found out that her uncle had gambled away their inheritance. She takes her sister and moves to Miami after her uncle tried to molest Livie. Soon, Kacey becomes friends with her neighbour Storm and her 3 year old daughter. Storm gets Kacey a job as a bartender at the strip club where she works. Kacey’s other neighbour, Trent, is a very attractive man who moved in just before she did. They meet many times in the laundry room, at the gym, and at the strip club. Kacey falls for him, but Trent has a mysterious past. Kacey keeps her dark secrets from him too so she doesn’t think anything of it, but soon their nightmares threaten their relationship.

This is a great book. The characters are well developed. Everything spirals out of control for Kacey, and her sister is a good foil for her. Livie keeps everything together when Kacey can’t.
At times, the story was very dark. Kacey has severe PTSD so she makes a lot of bad decisions. This also caused a lot of tension in the story between the characters. But the ending was so shocking, that the build up was worth it.

I was suspicious of Trent from the start, but I didn’t think his background was going to be revealed. There is a great twist that reveals everything at the end.

This book is very well written. I’m glad it’s the beginning of a series so the story of Kacey and Livie will continue!

The Thea Sisters return in this mystery. They go to Hollywood to visit Jenna, their friend, and her sister Terri, who works at a film studio. They get to visit the set of The Powerpaw Mouselets. They watch some filming, including scenes with the famous Johnny Ratt. But one night when Terri is working late, she is locked in a closet and the film is stolen. Meanwhile, the princess of Mousitania has gone missing. The Thea Sisters have to help Terri find the missing film so she doesn’t lose her job, as well as keeping an eye out for the princess.

Like the other books, there are many mouse references. They say other mice are “squeaking” instead of “speaking,” and their investigation has “more holes than a slice of Swiss.” There are also mouse versions of celebrities. The famous actor is Johnny Ratt instead of Johnny Depp, and the director of a movie is Ratatino rather than Tarantino. They also pass the Mouselor on the street, who is like the Bachelor.

This was a clever mystery. I couldn’t figure out what happened and was surprised at it. This is a good story, which would be great for middle grade readers!

The kids of Gotham Academy are back again. Maps is still joking around, creating rhymes about imaginary adventures that have yet to happen. Olive’s mother has just died. She goes to see a psychiatrist, Professor Strange. But she thinks she sees her mother. Her mother was the villain Calamity. Buildings are still being set on fire and Olive is certain that she sees her mother’s ghost. With the help of Colton, Pomeline, and Maps, Olive ventures into Arkham Asylum to find the truth about her mother.

This volume was much more exciting than the first. The characters were introduced in the first graphic novel, so the new plot could begin right away in this one. This was also a very funny story. Maps added some comic relief too.

I was glad that there was more of Arkham Asylum and Gotham City in this story. Batman’s son made an appearance as well as one of the Robins. Maps even dresses up as Robin, fulfilling her sidekick role.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel, and I’m excited to read the next volume!

Joan and Lincoln were leaving the zoo when it happened. Four-year-old Lincoln had been playing with his “guys,” his superhero toys, in the sand when his mother said they should go. The zoo would be closing soon. She kept hearing popping noises, like fireworks. But she didn’t realize what it really was until she saw the bodies on the ground near the exit. She ran when she saw the the gunmen. She carried Lincoln and they ran to a hiding place in an empty animal enclosure.

This story is very realistic right now. These kinds of shootings happen all too often. I think it would be especially scary in a zoo, because there are so many hiding places for both the shooters and the victims.

There were other people hidden in the zoo along with Joan and Lincoln, but I don’t think they were as necessary to the story. I felt more of a connection to Joan because she was the main focus of the story. There was also the hint of the backstory of why the shooters did this. It would have been interesting to know the full story, but it was never told.
Lincoln added some comic relief to the story. He made jokes to make his mom laugh. But I would cringe when he would speak to loudly, possibly alerting the shooters to their position.

I was holding my breath for a lot of this book. It was very thrilling, but I wish there was some more explanation of why the situation happened.

Imagine a world with only women. No men. The men have been destroyed by a virus that women are immune to. The remaining men live in sanctuaries. New babies are born using IVF, but if it’s a boy, it is sent away to a sanctuary before the mother can even see it. There are four generations of women: Gramummas, Mummas, Teens, and Littler Ones. The Granmummas were teens in the time before the men were killed, so they remember the old world. Everyone else only knows the new world of only women. This world is turned upside down for River when she finds a boy one day. He tries to attack her but she subdues him and brings him back to her village. But the boy should have been killed by the virus long before now. There’s a reason he’s still alive. And now he owes River for saving his life.

The premise of this story is very good. It’s a world run by women, 60 years in the future. This is especially relevant today, when many women are losing the rights that they have spent centuries earning. Even the title is a reference to a Beyoncé song, “Who Runs The World? (Girls)”

I wish the story had more description of the new world. River narrates the story, which gives a first person perspective of what is happening. However, this often turns into a stream of consciousness that is confusing until the details of the community are told. I still had many questions about how the world was run and what it looks like. The buildings are falling apart, but why? And where do they get their money from? They eat insects rather than meat, so where did the animals go? I think there could have been a whole book just to explain the new world without men.
It’s interesting how the genders were divided up. The men were associated with violence and fitness and video games. The women don’t fight or workout or play video games at all. I’m not sure if these stereotypes would play out in real life if this happened, because plenty of girls like to work out and play video games.

This was a very intriguing story, but I wish it had some more details to completely immerse the reader into the story.